Luke 6:32-36

Luke 6:32-36 “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Even sinners love those who love them; do good to those who do good to them; lend to those who repay them. Even sinners, the barbarians, the hedonists, the wicked, do those things; but Jesus asks much more from his followers. He asks us to be as He is, like God. I sometimes believe we Christians deceive ourselves about the attitude of our hearts. We fondly remember the times when we went out of our way to love an enemy or didn't ask for a loan to be repaid, but we forget the many times that our hearts were not merciful and kind. We forget the times we held something against people because they didn't treat us right. We just forget who we really are sometimes and want to believe the few acts of mercy that we perform in our lives cover the multitude of times our hearts were unnecessarily angry about something someone did to us. Many times, even in our families, we will react quite aggressively when we feel unfairly treated. Some of us desire a pound of flesh for every bad word said against us. Some of us won't even talk to a family member until the other says, "I'm sorry." None of this is exceptionally bad unless we feel somehow we are satisfying Jesus' words to be perfect, like God who is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and quick to forgive. We should always be honest with ourselves. Do we love our enemies ALL THE TIME? No, probably much of the time, we are like the barbarian, the sinner.

Well, what then? Should we quit trying? No, we should pray constantly that our fleshly spirit of self will become weaker, less controlling. We should pray for God's nature to be instilled in us. But, He really cannot work on us unless we assess correctly who WE REALLY ARE and seek him. I am sure there would be far fewer fights in our families if we really accepted who we are, and that we are not like God who is rich in mercy and grace. What is Jesus implying in the above passage? He says, we are not as God is. Our humanness gets in the way of being as He is. We have a button of self-centerness that people can push. How then can we be sons and daughters of the Most High?

Well, without Jesus and his work on the cross, we are not sons and daughters, but IN HIM, we belong to the family of God. Does this get us off the hook as far as acting loving and merciful? Of course not, we are always obligated to act as a member of God's family, to have the family spirit. Our spirits should be in constant communion with God, so we don't scream and yell at the person who has just endangered our life on the highway or who has done some other bad thing to us. As God's children, we wrestle with our self-centered spirits. Even though our flesh does not conform sometimes to God's loving spirit, we are still judged right with God because of Jesus Christ's work on the cross. Nonetheless, we strive to become conformable to his likeness in our deeds and actions.

Judge yourself rightly, know who you really are. Then repent of the old man. If you do so, there will be less negativity in your life. You will learn to be more positive and merciful, more like your Father. You will love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, loan to those who will not repay. Of course, some people will call you naive for having a selfless spirit, but God will call you son or daughter. You might hear these lovely words, "He (she) is such a great guy (gal). He (she) is just like his (her) Dad."